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Friday, February 27, 2015

The second Viscount Palmerston (1739-1802),
whose son served as Prime Minister in the 1850s and 1860s, exemplified the late
Georgian aristocracy. He served for many years in the House of Commons and was
at the center of society. He traveled extensively abroad, always with an eye to
adopting Continental architecture and artifacts into his own beloved
Broadlands, his country home in Hampshire.

In the late1700s the 2nd Lord Palmerston hired both Robert Adam and Capability Brown to "modernize" his beloved Broadland, located in Hampshire.

What makes him stand apart from other
effulgent aristocrats of his day, though, is the rich legacy of letters
(1,400), travel journals and appointment books (100 books) he left behind —
some million words in all, a sixth of which is presented in Connell’s work.

It was through a most circuitous path that
these papers saw publication. Since the Prime Minister Lord Palmerston had no
legitimate issue, Broadlands fell to the second son of Palmerston’s wife, the
widow of Lord Cowper, whom Palmerston did not marry until she was fifty. That
son, William Cowper (said to have been sired by Palmerston), left no issue, so
Broadlands passed to the second son of his niece, Evelyn Ashley. The estate
eventually passed to Ashley’s granddaughter, who became the Countess
Mountbatten.

The Countess Mountbatten found the papers
at Broadlands in the mid 1900's while renovating the mansion and asked Brian Connell
to edit them. His labors resulted in Portrait of a Golden Age: Intimate Papers of
the Second Viscount Palmerston, Courtier under George III, published in
1958.

Critic Virginia Kirkus said their discovery
“rates with the Boswell papers and the Walpole letters, and that recaptures a
personality and period as vividly as does Cecil’s Melbourne.”

From Palmerston’s engagement diaries, it is
possible to know with whom he had dinner every night of his adult life. His
range of friendships included an astonishing roster of the great names of his
era from Voltaire to Lady Hamilton to Prinny. His works are rich with records
of prices he paid for items as well as serving as a glossary of medicinals of
the era. Palmerston himself prefaced his diaries, “As these books may be
considered as the anals of a man’s life, and may be of use even after his
decease, they ought by all means to be preserved.”

Few of the entries are intensely personal,
but the following one chronicles the death of his first wife, who died in
childbed two years after their marriage:

Lady Palmerston was taken ill
with a feverish complaint. Two days afterwards she was brought to bed of a dead
child. She was tolerably well for some days, but a fever came on suddenly which
made a most rapid progress and on the fatal 1st of June terminated
the existence of a being by far the most perfect I have ever known; of one who
possessing worth, talents, temper and understanding superior to most persons of
either sex, never during my whole connection with her spoke a word or did an
act I could wished to alter.

These diaries shed so much light on the
practices of the day. For example, weddings were no big deal. Families often
did not attend. The well-placed Lord Palmerston wrote the following to his
mother prior to his first marriage:

I should have wrote to you a
little sooner but could not have given you any certain notice of the time of my
being married, but have the pleasure to tell you that before you read this, you
will in all probability have a most amiable daughter-in-law, as I believe I
shall be married tomorrow.

We should all give thanks to Countess
Mountbatten and to Brian Connell for giving us such a work.

Her Broadlands—which the 2nd Lord
Palmerston so lovingly restyled in the Palladian manner favored by the
Georgians—has been closed for several years for restoration. It now belongs to
her grandson, Lord Brabourne and will reopen to the public during the summer of
2015. Many of the family archives have reportedly been sold to the University
of Portsmouth. What a privilege it would be to see both Broadlands and the
archives!—Cheryl Bolen's second book in
the House of Haverstock series, A Duchess by Mistake, releases on April 7 and can now be preordered.

Friday, February 13, 2015

January was
not always the beginning of the year—an older tradition began the year in
March.

In March, Lady
Day, March 25, was the traditional day for planting and hiring farm laborers
for such work. In the church calendars, this day was set as the Feast of the Annunciation,
when the angel Gabriel visited the Virgin Mary to tell her about her upcoming
role. This was also the traditional day for when yearly agreements might end or
need renewal—it was the old day for the first day of the year. This made it one
of the main quarter days.

The quarter days were when servants were
hired, rents were due, and assizes were held in the Assizes Towns, over Assizes
Week. Assize comes from the Old French and meant that judges traveled the
seven circuits of England and Wales, setting up court.

The English
quarter days (also observed in Wales and the Channel Islands) are:

March 25 Lady Day

June 24Midsummer Day

Sept 29Michaelmas

Dec 25Christmas

Cross-quarter
days that fall between the quarters, adhere to older Celtic holidays:

Feb 2Candlemas

May 1May Day

Aug 1Lammas

Nov 1All Hallows

In Ireland, prior to 5th
century AD, the old Celtic quarter days were observed:

Feb 1Imbolc

May 1Beltaine

Aug 1Lunasa

Nov 1Samhain

The old Scottish term days, and the quarter days in northern England until the 18th
century, were:

Feb 2Candlemas

May 15Whitsunday

Aug 1Lammas

Nov 11Martinmas

(For more information on quarter days and cross-quarter days, visit Almanac.com.)

St. David's
Day, the Welsh patron saint, came on March 1, and tradition held that all good
Welshmen should wear a leak—a vegetable readily available from winter fare.

March also
brought Lent, and very often Easter (in March or April).

You may think
that colored eggs and rabbits are modern inventions, but these are actually
ancient traditions associated with Easter. (It’s only the chocolate Easter
bunny and the bunny with eggs in its basket that are new.)

Eggs have
been associated with fertility and new beginnings for a very long time. And the
hare is also an ancient symbol used since the Middle Ages by the Church. In 1290, King Edward Iof
England actually ordered 450 eggs to be gold-leafed and colored for Easter
gifts.

Pace Eggs are
hard boiled eggs with patterned shells, and are traditional made in northern
parts of England.

At Biddenden
in Kent at Easter, the Biddenden Dole—bread, cheese, beer, and cake—is distributed.
Since the late 1700’s, the cake given out bears an image of two women said to
be the founders of this charity, a pair of Siamese twins who were born in 1100
and died within a few hours of each other at thirty-four.

Hot Cross
Buns are also an old tradition in England. It is said they were made by Saxons
to honor their goddess Eostre, with the bun represented the moon and the cross
the moon's quarters. But at Easter the cross symbolizes the crucifixion.
They’re traditionally served warm on Good Friday.

In Shropshire
and Herefordshire, Simnell Cakes made with saffron were made for the Easter
season. But in many parts of England, the Simnell Cake is made at the end of
Lent, the period of forty days before Easter (starting with Fat Tuesday and Ash
Wednesday).

In the 17th century, Mothering Sunday,
the fourth Sunday in Lent, became the day when those in service were allowed a
day off to go and visit their mothers. Girls would bake their mothers a Simnell
cake as a gift.

In England, Maundy Thursday, is the
beginning of Easter celebrations and commemorates the Last Supper. The name
comes from the Latin, mandatum (relating to Jesus’ commands to his disciples). Up
to 1689, the king or queen would wash the feet of the poor in Westminster
Abbey. Food and clothing were also handed out to the poor. Maundy coins—specially
minted—were also given out to pensioners.

From the fifteenth century on, the
amount of Maundy coins handed out, and the number of people receiving the
coins, was tied to the years of the Sovereign’s life and given to celebrate
specific events. The Yeomen of the Guards carry the Maundy money in red and
white leather purses on golden alms trays on their heads.

Welcome to Historical Hussies

Welcome to our blog for readers and writers--or anyone, really, who loves history! Donna Hatch, Shannon Donnelly, Cheryl Bolen, Beppie Harrison, Jenna Jaxon, and Katherine Bone are historical romance authors. Very well, we confess; we're historical nerds! We are fascinated with ancient wedding traditions, Irish food, Roman Warfare, Regency Clothing, Scottish swords--you get the idea. Watch our blog for informative tidbits that just might figure in your next manuscript or deepen your appreciation for the next book you read, or even give you some useless trivia to spout at a party when you can't think of a thing to say.We welcome comments and followers, so chime in and enjoy the group!